What’s better than going on a weekend getaway to a remote forest in the middle of nowhere with your best friend? Probably the fact that neither of you is particularly fond of the other, and will spend most of the time engaging in games of psychological warfare, deconstructing the hopes and insecurities of the person…
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
It’s been well-documented that, prior to the late 1950s, horror cinema wasn’t really a prominent area being explored in French filmmaking, especially those that were more focused on more contemporary or alternative stories. One director who contributed his own voice to this disparity with Georges Franju, who I’ve grown to have enormous respect for, even…
The Grass Is Greener (1960)
Victor (Cary Grant) and Hilary (Deborah Kerr) seem like the quintessential English couple – they have been happily married for over a decade, have a couple of children and a lovely property in the countryside. In actuality, they are the Earl and Lady Rhyall, descended from a long line of aristocrats that have allowed them…
Splendid Days (1960)
Sergey (Boris Barkhatov) has just turned five – and despite his young age, he has grown to have a keen understanding of the world around him. However, this sentiment isn’t shared by those in his immediate surroundings, who find him to be just like any other precocious child, curious about life, long before he learns…
Extra Ordinary (2020)
Somewhere in working-class Ireland resides Rose (Maeve Higgins), a quiet young woman who runs a small driving school, being a valuable but otherwise forgettable member of the local community. However, this hasn’t always been her life – prior to settling into this banal but comfortable existence, Rose worked with her father (Risteárd Cooper), a celebrated…
Kajillionaire (2020)
Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) has only known peculiarity – named after a homeless man who came into a large fortune, her life has been anything but conventional. It doesn’t help that her parents (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger) have made a living as con artists, with their livelihood coming in fleecing any unsuspecting victim,…
Johnny Stecchino (1991)
Dante (Roberto Benigni) is a man who knows how to have a good time, even if he doesn’t always realize it. He primarily works as a volunteer bus driver for mentally-handicapped adults, and earns a living scamming the government for insurance benefits, falsely claiming to have suffered an accident that left him partially disabled and…
The Rules of the Game (1939)
In an introduction accompanying the restored version of his seminal masterpiece, The Rules of the Game (French: La Règle du Jeu), Jean Renoir describes the moment he knew he made a challenging film, when he witnessed a member of the audience at the film’s premiere light a newspaper in an attempt to burn the venue…
Despair (1978)
“The perfect murder is the one where the victim did it” For all his idiosyncrasies, we can never accuse Rainer Werner Fassbinder for being unoriginal, as evident by many of his most unique and often divisive works. His only English-language film stands as one of his most interesting achievements – and in it, he’s working…
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
Based on his lengthy career in comedy, the concept of pushing the envelope has come to be synonymous with Sacha Baron Cohen, and has made him both an oddly beloved figure, and someone reviled by those who are not attuned to his peculiar sense of humour. From his breakout in the early 2000s, he established…
The Postmodern Pelican 